Monday, 16 January 2012

NATURE'S DELIGHT OR FRIGHT

It was May and we--- I and my sister had come home for the hols from hostel. It was so hot in our town --- Ariyalur that we were sweating like anything. Our father seeing our plight chalked out a plan --- a short trip to the famous Nilgiri hills. As you all know it is also called Ooty the hillstation with so many hair pin bends. Both of us jumped in joy and immediately started packing for our trip. The next we started early in the morning in our own car . Our father engaged a driver and our family four in number could comfortably seat in our own vehicle .With a nice holiday ahead and loved ones near , I was dreaming of a memorable time. the journey started really happy with me and my sister playing antharaskhiri , my father trying to his daily suduko and my mother listening to music .

The pleasant breeze was filled with the aroma of tea dust as we reached the foot hills of Nilgris. Our driver seemed to be an expert in driving through hills that he passed each hair pin bend with ease. we halted at Cunnour for lunch as it was already half past two and we were also feeling hungry. During lunch me and my sister discussed about the places to be seen in Ooty. my sister was sure that she would find flower exhibition the best with thousands of roses dancing to the tunes of music whereas I thought that botanical garden would become my favourite. We also looked forward to boating inthe Ooty lake . As the lunch got over my father said that he felt sleepy and he wanted to lie down in the grass there. A few minutes passed by I found that our driver was becoming restless. I asked ' what happened?' He said 'we have to start soon and reach Ooty quickly' ' But why?'' let's enjoy our trip let's not hurry. ' my sister told the driver. The driver looked hesitantly at us and said 'it is difficult to drive when it becomes dark.' Are you short sighted?' my sister immediately threw a question at him and started giggling. The driver looked obviously hurt at the remark and my father sensing that the journey would be spoilt because of our foolish talk asked the driver to resume the journey.

We had not even travelled for ten minutes that it suddenlybecame quite dark. From nowhere came a big cloud of mist disabling us from seeing any thing. Though for a few seconds we enjoyed the mist, immediately a sense of fear , anxiety caught us Our driver could no longer see the way and he stopped the vehicle for the fear of falling down in the valley. My father looked worried and my mother shaken. 'How long will it last?' 'cannot tell. might stay for an hour or a night.' the driver's voice was worried too. we cannot continue until the mist clears.it is dangerous to drive we cannot see the hairpinbends clearly.' 'but it is not safe to park our vehicle in this uphill near the bends like this.. the coming vehicles may not see us in this mist.' said my father. 'there is no other alternative but to wait for the mist to clear, sir' said the driver. 'our car does not the powerful lights which can be used to see during fog or mist.' he added. who thought that there would be such a thick mist in the month of summer. In the next few minutes it became so dark that we could not see even the faces of us in the leave alone outside. I started praying for the mist to clear. I had read about the mist in Enid Blyton 's Famous Five stories but never expected the same to happen to us. I could feel my sister clutching my hand in fright. We could hear the sounds of jeeps and Tata sumos passing by us. perhaps there were locals used to the path and mist--- we never knew. After a few minutes a jeep stopped by us. 'got struck in this mist. it is quite heavy . it may take a few hours to clear. as it has already become six in the evening you might face problem even if it clears. so , why not follow us . we have got powerful yellow lights. ' the jeep driver spoke to us. 'Is it ok to do so?' my father. 'I will try otherwise we have to stay here stranded the whole night. ' Saying so he started following the jeep. The jeep driver too went rather slowly enabling us to follow him easily. After an half hour 's journey we could see that the mist started clearing slowly. Ten to dozen vehicles were parked all along the path unable to proceed . After we reached the zone of safety we all thanked God for landing us safely at Ooty. I can never forget this in my life and it is one of the best experiences I had with nature.